At the June 16 Spring Grove City Council meeting, Tim Hruska, WHKS, was on hand to discuss the watermain project plans and how adding an assessment policy would impact staff and project budgets. Councilor Morgan Buckland was absent. The approved agenda removed a closed session and added four items under New Business.
Adding an assessment policy would establish a fair and equitable manner of recovering and distributing the cost of public improvements. It would also have the option of providing assessment costs for residential and commercial property owners who would be impacted up front instead of after the work was completed.
Hruska, contracted city engineer, explained past practices for street projects, then he explained how having an assessment policy is a change of practice for WHKS to provide. He outlined the required steps, which includes two public hearings.
The first step is for Hruska to work with City Clerk/Administrator Jana Elton to draft a policy for review at a future council meeting. Hruska said the impact to the budget would be “pretty minimal” compared to the overall budget, and that “the policy would be used for every project forward if the policy gets approved.”
Mayor Bryan Wilhelmson asked if this would push two current projects back to next year, and Hruska said yes. The motion to approve drafting of the policy and bringing it back to the council for review was approved unanimously.
New Business Decisions and Updates
There were 17 new business items discussed; those approved were done so unanimously, but some were tabled until a July 7 budget meeting.
Spring Grove Soda got approval to vacate sidewalks to make them private. The council agreed the sidewalks are hazardous in the winter especially. The south and east sides will have the sidewalks blocked off with signs posted for this year.
Councilor Joseph Grodahl requested approval from the council to have Elton help put together informational packets to highlight Spring Grove for his upcoming trip to Washington, D.C. The packets will be given to Spring Grove’s congressional representatives. Grodahl also would like to extend an invitation when he meets with the representatives to attend the 2027 Spring Grove Homecoming parade. Both requests were approved.
The council approved a new tenant moving into a city rental home around August 1, with no rent increase and a continued month-to-month lease, as the city is selling the home at 194 W. Main St.
The council approved a street closure request by Viking Park for a July 1 Safety and Service Night put on by the Spring Grove Area Chamber of Commerce.
The council also approved the hiring of fireman Ryan Lange, the acceptance of EDA member Leslie Hill, accepting charitable gambling proceed donations for the fire department equipment fund. The Houston County Sheriff’s hours were reviewed.
Elton notified the council that Spring Grove was not selected for an AFG Grant which would have provided a new compressor for the fire department. She also listed the zoning permits approved since the last regular council meeting. Another update was that a joint powers agreement with area townships outside the city limits was not possible for an EDA grant for a new daycare.
Several items were tabled until after the July budget meeting. These included:
•Kailee Bjerke of Oddly Good Creatives gave a presentation and proposal for a new city website for residents as well as building a second website for tourism, but the council thought the second one may be more of a collaborative effort with other Spring Grove organizations and there may be grants available.
•The Spring Grove Chamber requested $6,000 for three annual events.
•Giants of the Earth Heritage Center requested a city appropriation for $25,000 for a community newspaper and local news platform.
•Elton requested a review of organizational capacity and staffing. If the city adds an ambulance service to manage under the city government, it will add more work to be done. Elton also would like EDA help with a grant writer.
A discussion about issues with the brush dump was tabled until the next regular meeting. The issues include that there is no weekend service, the dump continues to get brush and logs from people outside of the city limits, logs take a long time to burn, and it’s close to a residential area.
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